


The Mistake Before Christmas

by Lukas17



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Multi, Santa Claus - Freeform, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 07:36:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17320739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukas17/pseuds/Lukas17
Summary: Two vampires and a ghost try to prepare for Christmas while avoiding the sun, failing to pick up objects, and temporarily going on a murderous rampage.





	The Mistake Before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chofi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chofi/gifts).



> I struggled so much with this lol, so Chofi I hope you like this.

_It was Christmas time all throughout the land. From the game shop twenty soccer moms had already been banned. Rich doctors were off to beaches with sand. And somewhere a Christmas movie remake was already panned. Decorations were hung, looking quite grand. Meanwhile a young girl had something to say offhand._

“Honestly the material of dresses these days, terrible.” Luna rubbed the flimsy material between her fingers. Ever since the shopping area came in one hundred years ago she made it a habit to visit to see what was new with the merchandise as well as the construction of the shopping area. She liked to catalogue things away to remember them and sometimes re-introduce things into the market. There were several old world treats she’d been keeping in her back pocket. Unfortunately, while food tastes were changing to be more retro clothing tastes were not and nothing she’d found so far was heavy and warm like she liked.

“Why don’t you layer?” Noctis asked from his spot at the T-shirt rack.

“Because I don’t want to spend a hundred dollars just to remain slightly warm.” She said, out of the corner of her eye she saw a necklace slowly begin to float up while another customer looked away to argue with a retail worker. Luna stood back as this necklace was tossed at the back of the woman’s head, causing her to shriek.

“We should probably go…” Noctis said.

The woman continued to screech as they both slipped out of the shop into the busy shopping center. It was almost ten at night and most of the shops were already closed, but Luna still felt a bit blinded from the lights used to illuminate the main area. She tugged her wide brimmed hat down to protect her sensitive eyes.

“Prompto, you should be more careful.” Noctis said. His chastising surprised Luna. Normally Noctis didn’t care what their haunting boyfriend did unless it was breaking into the expensive wine collection.

“She deserved it.”

“There are millions of people like that every day, you can’t stop them Prompto.” She said. “Best to not accidentally get caught.”

Above them she could see a small flash of silver as Prompto wisely resisted from going corporeal, “No one would believe them.” He said.

“But you should still be careful. They’ll call an exorcist.”

“Or the Ghostbusters.” Noctis said.

“Or they’ll lock ya away.” A man from a nearby bar said. “Fuckin’ loonies.”

Luna turned her head and locked eyes with the man, clearly a bit tipsy and very annoyed sitting at the bar of the small restaurant. The bar was at the exterior so people could grab drinks to enjoy in the shopping center with the seating area inside. The man was dressed in a Santa costume and his beer was almost completely empty.

“Excuse me.” She said, “That was quite rude.”

The man snorted, “What’re ya, my grandmother?”

“I just might well be.”

The man downed the rest of his drink then grabbed his hat, “Fucking crazies. Should keep you away from the rest of us.”

The horrible man turned and left to continue entertaining young children, leaving Luna in shock. She couldn’t believe how rude the man had been. It put her in a bad mood and Noctis even more so. As all three of them headed back she and Prompto complained about the encounter until they felt better. With the night setting in most of the vampire community was waking up so they’d likely end up going out again to visit the vampiric night markets and pick up a few blood bags.

_The three undead beings returned to their household. Prompto soon left to visit Aranea, a confidant and a friend all told. Noctis, disturbed by the night, felt an anger he had rarely been forced to behold. Meanwhile, Luna began searching for a game quite old._

There was only one store with the specific game Luna wanted to get for her boyfriends. It was a retro fighter game and the first game Noctis purchased a few decades ago. The only problem, as she came to find, was that the shop was only open in the middle of the day.

With the sun.

Needless to say, she wished that someone, somewhere, had developed online shops that could deliver items extremely quickly. Perhaps even a day or so. She would take a week, if it meant that she didn’t have to brave the cursed ball of plasma that threatened her skin and very existence every day. Humans didn’t get hurt with moonlight, but vampires got hit hard in daylight. At least she never needed to buy anti-aging cream.

Luna had postponed going out in hopes that the sun would set earlier later in the year, but it didn’t. It set around five which was the time the small shop closed, and she had only a few days until Christmas. She had to get this game. Noctis didn’t know that a copy was still floating around, and Prompto was a ghost who couldn’t reliably transport money across town and exchange said money for goods and services. Getting this game would entitle her to a year’s worth of favors and she was not going to give that up by having them unwrap some game that had released that year and probably wasn’t as good.

So she dressed in her long, coat, a pair of leggings, wrapped a scarf over her mouth, put on sunglasses, and set a large hat on top of her head. With all these clothes on she grabbed an umbrella and cautiously wandered out into the relatively clear day to head out to the games shop.

Luna hoped she didn’t stand out too much as she unraveled the umbrella and held it over her head to block some of the sunlight. The Hello Kitty print wouldn’t protect her, but she hoped it would lesson the burns she’d inevitably get on every inch of exposed skin.

She held out her gloved hand into the sunlight, rotated it around to test just how bad the burning would be. She felt a tingle, especially when a mere centimeter of skin was exposed, but no strong feeling of burning so she slowly pulled it back and began walking down the street.

The manor was a fair walk away from the shopping center, it sat at the edge of town and generally completed the creepy atmosphere the Caelum family was trying to achieve. Unfortunately it made for an uncomfortable walk as she tried to pass off as normal while her skin felt as if little pins were poking at it. She hoped that in the cold she would look at least semi-normal, but as she passed by groups of people she realized she looked quite unusual. Either it was the umbrella on a clear day or it was being wrapped head to toe in clothing on a warming morning.

She tried not to worry about it and maintain a quick but not rushed pace through the streets taking solace in whatever shade she could find from trees or buildings. Despite her quick pace the prickling grew more intense, and she was glad to finally see the games shop in the distance. She picked up the pace and nearly flew in through the door of the extremely packed, weirdly smelly, games store.

Every vaguely games interested person in town was in that shop buying the latest version of some online expansion with a six word title and box art of a pretty girl in a, shockingly, practical outfit. Luna reluctantly got in line behind a girl with a copy of that game and a T-shirt of some Hitman game in her other hand. The line wrapped around the store through aisle of merchandise so Luna took the time to peruse the shelves looking for anything entertaining. She’d played games before, but she hadn’t been a fan of many of the newer, bigger titles that often were advertised and tended to play older, more classical games. The newer games were so confusing, often coming with useless bundles and commercials filled with people screaming. She couldn’t tell one first person shooter from the next, and hadn’t seen a game with an actual advertised story in a long time.

The store had older games next to its new releases, she took the time to look through the as she waited in the never ending line. A new entry to a popular fantasy series, Swords and Shields, had been released earlier that year. She had never really played it but the newest entry looked interesting, with a woman as the protagonist fighting some sort of empire. Another game she looked at was for children, yet another entry into a popular series starting a short man saving a princess.

She read through the little descriptions on the boxes as the line slowly moved forward and weaved through aisles. The types of games changed as well, going from the fantasy sets to the boring first person shooters and a row of online games. On the last aisle, right before the checkout station, sat some of the newest releases which she flipped through idly until she found one that looked quite interesting. On the cover was a very attractive looking woman with a spear and a long braid that fell in the front of her right shoulder. The back explained the gist of the story, a historical romp through various time periods and different ancestors. Luna found the concept very interesting, and before she could bring herself to put the game down a register was free. The smiling, but tired, cashier took the game and grabbed the reserved game she’d called for. The total came up to over double what she initially wanted to spend, but she walked out feeling very happy with her purchase.

But that happiness did not erase the dread, the fear, the stress of being forced to walk in the sun. She walked out to see that it was still relatively high in the sky, and she did not want to spend her time at the shopping center amongst people who, like her, waited until the last minute to pick up gifts. She sigh, unraveled her umbrella, and got to walking.

When she arrived home she thought that she had managed to do a good job. She had her items and hadn’t felt a deep burn on her skin. She thought she was fine. Until Prompto arrived home, phasing through the wall of the house to take one look at her and rudely asked:

“What happened to your face?”

“What?” She said. She brought her hand up to her face, but didn’t feel anything out of place. She then quickly pulled out a mirror from her purse and held it up to find that, unfortunately, she had not been as well protected as she thought. In the space between the sunglasses and her hair she’d managed to pick up two, dark brown burns on her skin.

“They make you look angry.” Prompto stage whispered as she stared in disbelief at the sight. Poking at one sent a sharp, shooting pain down her temple that made her face twist up in pain.

“Oh… great.” She sighed. The things she did for love.

_As Luna nursed her sun wound Noctis sat in his room. Just thinking of Santa’s injustice made him fume. Luna did not deserve such respect from a lowly hume. They should be able to freely speak with Prompto, it lifted feelings of glume. Santa’s glory Noctis would deplume. He would pay dearly for insults made in that barroom._

Noctis simmered and stewed for a full day after the confrontation with the Santa Claus. He couldn’t remember a time where he felt so insulted and angry on the behalf of another person. Luna didn’t deserve to be harassed by anyone, including Santa Claus. As the eldest (only) Caelum son Noctis would do something about it.

He dragged one of the old chalkboards into his room and began planning, writing elaborate and detailed schemes down then evaluating them for flaws. Some took too long, some were too expensive. He made charts, did the math, graphed, and analyzed each and every component of his plans until finally, after hours upon hours of plotting and thinking, he found the perfect plan that would give him the vengeance he so sought.

He searched his room until he found his phone. A few clicks, some ringing, and a tired greeting came from the line.

“Hey Iggy, would you mind making me some sugar cookies.”

_Over the days to Christmas Noctis’ bloodlust grew. Luna found several sun scars that were new. While this happened ideas in Prompto’s brain started to brew. As a ghost his gift giving options were few. A gift that would make Luna happy, and Noctis too._

Noctis had taken to his room with a chalkboard. Prompto peeked on him once to see if there was a normal explanation for that, but terrible handwriting and crazed muttering showed that there was absolutely nothing normal going on in that 300 square foot room. Vampires. It was in their nature to hole themselves up and plot gruesome plans so Prompto was content to letting Noctis just get it out of his system. Besides it was good for Noctis to be distracted so his gift was a surprise.

Ever since the invention of refrigeration Prompto had wanted to make ice cream. Luna and Noctis were fans and there were always pints in the various freezers around the home, but he had ideas for flavors that people couldn’t find in a store. Flavors he ate years ago when his father was in a good enough mood to share what was left of his dinners. Prompto didn’t have many means to pick up resources, but he did have friends who could go to the grocery store, and Aranea was kind enough to leave him a bag of supplies for him to create a blade of mace ice cream.

Prompto stuck his head through the fridge door and saw that the supplies were inside as promised. He pulled his head back and managed to maneuver the door open just enough for the supplies to fit. His ghostly hand managed to wrap around the handles of the plastic bag and drag the mass of fresh eggs and cream out of the fridge just far enough so that when his corporeal-ness slipped just a tad it all fell three feet to the ground, definitely cracking several eggs just inches from the fridge and several feet away from the safety of the counter.

Well then…

_Prompto struggled to just hold the ingredients that would eventually make ice cream. Unfortunately, Luna’s wounds were more persistent then it would seem. During the day Noctis’ dreams were a little extreme. Somehow all of this was more normal then it would seem._

Christmas for vampires was a lot like New Years in that they were often awake at midnight and people typically spent time together with loved ones. The evening started off with Noctis in his room, sitting and plotting. Listening for the moment for him to make his move. His room was dark with the curtains drawn so not even the moonlight could come in and disturb his meditation.

His door creaked.

“Noctis, do you want to join Prompto and I for cookies and coffee?” Luna asked. Not the sound he was waiting for but one appreciated nonetheless.

“No thanks Lu.” He said calmly. “I’m fine here.”

“... Are you alright? You’ve been up here for a very long time.”

“I’m fine Luna.”

“Okayyyyy, Prompto’s just going to take a sixty year old bottle of pinot then.”

“I hope he enjoys it.”

“Uhm. Alright then have fun up here. If you feel like joining us follow the sound of Mariah Carey’s Christmas album.” Luna slowly closed the door, leaving Noctis in his semi-silent room again. It was there where he waited and waited late into the night for that unmistakable sound of bells faintly in the distance.

He rushed out of bed and over towards the chimney at the west end of his house. He’d plugged up the vents for the other chimney’s, forcing Kris Kringle to come down the one far from Luna and Prompto’s merriment. The room was dark and had been empty until the arrival of Santa, who was busy gathering up his sack of toys and straightening the table he’d knocked into on his decent. He’d grown a bit taller since Noctis last saw him at the mall, face a bit more rosy, but still the same jolly ol’ Saint Nick.

“Santa!” He exclaimed, “Glad you could make it.”

Santa jumped and whipped around in shock, but seemed to relax when he saw that it was just Noctis. “Ho hoooh, my boy, you scared me.” He said jovially, “Sweet kids like you should be in bed.”

“I’m actually four hundred and sixty-two… But that’s not important. I came here to offer you some cookies I baked.” He held out the plate Ignis left with various festive cookies.

“Oh ho ho! What a kind thing to do young man.” Santa exclaimed. He quickly cleared the whole plate, leaving only a few crumbs. “Ah, now I need some milk to wash all of these down with.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Santa. I accidentally left the milk down where we’re celebrating. I can take you to get it.”

“Well let’s hurry along my dear!”

Noctis lead Santa down the long, long staircase towards the wine cellar. Somehow the lack of decorations, and proper lighting, did not tip his captive off to the fact that this was not a trip to get dairy products.

“Hmm, strange decorations…” He said, spying the gothic looking candle holders on a table next to a jug of milk. Noctis didn’t give him a second to elaborate. He grabbed the shovel he’d hidden behind the staircase and brought the flat end over Santa’s head, knocking him out cold.

Working fast Noctis began laying down bricks, slathering them with cement and laying new rows on top. He laid brick upon brick until the walking space was completely blocked off, trapping Santa Claus inside the wine cellar.

Prompto would probably be the first to find him, but it could possibly be days before Prompto would come down for another bottle since Noctis left a few bottles upstairs. With that in mind Noctis finally found it in himself to go up the steps and visit with his loves.

“Noctis! So glad you came down.” Luna said, she pulled him into a quick hug and then gently lowered a santa cap on his head. “You feeling better now?”

“Oh yeah, way better.” He kissed her cheek then glanced over her shoulder where a fully corporeal Prompto drank a red while looking out the window.

“Santa isn’t here.” He whined. “Normally he’s here by now.”

“Prompto was just telling me how Santa always comes at the exact same time every year.” Luna explained. “We were waiting for him because I’d always wanted to meet him but he hasn’t come.”

“Lu you’ve already met him.” Noctis said. “Remember? At the mall…”

“That was a mall Santa.” She explained. “Not the real one.”

“A… mall Santa?”

“Yes. Have you never seen one? They’re just random men who dress as Santa to entertain children.”

“Oh…” Shit. “I, uh, I have to go grab something. I’ll be right back.”

Noctis dashed out of the room and hurried back down the stairs towards the wine cellar. He panicked when he saw the wall he’d constructed, but found that the cement was still wet and the bricks could be moved without much fuss. Noctis ripped the wall down and pulled a dazed, but still coherent, Santa Claus from the floor.

_Santa was understandably a little bit mad. Dying in some strange cellar would have been pretty bad. His death would have left millions of children sad. Like all vampires, bloodlust Noctis had. But he hadn’t felt it so strongly since he was a lad. Santa was a forgiving man, however, and for this Noctis was glad. He agreed to meet his loves, he’d stay for just a tad._

There either had to be a god smiling upon him or Santa was actually more formidable than he initially let on, because he needed no other convincing to go back up the steps and greet his loves, who both jumped up from the windowsill to talk with him.

“Oh Santa, it’s so good to meet you!” Luna exclaimed.

Above them Prompto floated, precariously holding a drink in his ghostly hands. “Normally you’re here earlier, did something go wrong?”

“Oh ho ho of course there was. Your boyfriend tried to lock me into your wine cellar.”

Prompto’s ghostly form shifted and floated towards a small chalkboard hung on a cabinet. On this chalkboard ‘Days since Noctis locked mortal enemy in wine cellar’. At the bottom the number read 209 before Prompto erased the two and the nine.

Luna, on the other hand, didn’t look angry or annoyed. Just disappointed. “Noctis, you need to keep your vampiric urges in check. You can’t try to kill every single person whom you believe has wronged you. Reign it in.”

“She’s right you know, you really can’t go off killing people whenever you feel like it. Also, you do realize you’re on the naughty list for life right?” Santa Claus said.

“I can’t believe it took until now for that to happen.” Prompto said sarcastically.

The conversation was a bit awkward, and Noctis felt his socialization energy quickly draining, “Would you believe me if I said I was just blood hangry?”

“I’m leaving.” With a poof Santa was gone. Leaving the three in an awkward silence for just a moment.

“I made you guys ice cream.”

_The ice cream was a hit. Luna had several servings, but she wouldn’t admit it. In front of the T.V the trio did sit. Luna played in Prompto’s stead when the controller he could not lift. They played games throughout the night, it was certainly lit. This Christmas passed with a near death and one drunk spirit._


End file.
